The only upgrades available for our puny human hands are gaming controller calluses, but if you're sporting an i-LIMB digits hand prosthesis, you can now grab a set of improved fingers. Touch Bionics' "smaller, lighter and more anatomically accurate" appendages are now available worldwide, as well as a new wrist-band unit which houses all the necessary computing power and juice for their function. Best of all, these developments allow more people to adopt the tech than the previous generation, including those with more petite hands or finger amputations closer to the knuckle. We don't know how much it'll cost for a fresh set, but we'll let health agencies and insurance companies deal with that part. With these upgrades and RSL Steeper's latest offering, it won't be long before our flesh-based variants are meager in comparison.
USC quarterback Matt Barkley, a Heisman Trophy candidate, and the Trojans invade Rice-Eccles Stadium on Thursday.
Tom Smart, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY ? Although Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham usually deflects questions about games that are not next on the schedule, he made an exception at Pac-12 Media Day in July.
Whittingham acknowledged that Thursday's game against USC was going to be a huge event with the "whole nine yards," including national-television coverage and the possibility that the Trojans could be ranked No. 1.
"It could be one of the biggest home games ever to take place at Rice-Eccles Stadium," Whittingham said. "If you look at the season as a whole and you point to games that will probably be critical in determining who wins championships, and so forth, we're sure that's going to be one of them."
USC and Utah were projected to finish 1-2 in the Pac-12 South's preseason media poll, adding even more intrigue to the Trojans' first game in Salt Lake City in 95 years.
Such a script, however, hasn't materialized over the first four games of the season. Neither team is undefeated and both came up short in their conference openers ? USC lost to Stanford (21-14) and Utah fell to Arizona State (37-7). Two weeks before the latter, the Utes dropped a 27-20 overtime decision at Utah State.
"It takes some of the luster off the game, I guess you could say, from a national perspective," Whittingham said. "But for us it's a huge game, as is every week from this point forward."
With the regular season one-third complete, Whittingham anticipates a battle each game the rest of the way.
"Every week's a challenge ? every single week," he said while adding that competition in the Pac-12 is non-stop with no intermission.
Utah's season-ending stretch of eight straight weeks of conference play without a break begins with league favorite USC. Whittingham said the Trojans are probably the most talented team in the league ? not the ideal opponent for the Utes after their poor showing at ASU.
"They've got talent throughout the roster and so we've got to respond," Whittingham noted. "We'll find out what we're made of this week and what kind of resiliency we have."
FORTUNE -- There's no shortage of embarrassing instances where Apple (AAPL) Maps "fell short" -- as Tim Cook's public apology put it -- but on Friday Canadian reader John Garner pointed me to a particularly striking one.
Jason Matheson, a fellow Canadian with a knack for Mac programming,?ran a quick Xcode script that compared the iPhone 5's map of Ontario with an official list of the province's cities and towns.?Of 2,028 place names, Matheson reports, 400 were correct on Apple's Maps app, 389 were pretty close, 551 were clearly incorrect and 688 weren't on the map at all.
"There's no excuse," Garner writes. "Quality control on Apple Maps had to have been terrible to not get this right.?Bluntly, Scott Forstall should be fired over this mess."
Garner is not alone in pointing the finger at Forstall, the senior vice president for iOS software and the Apple executive --?after Cook --?most often described as an heir apparent to Steve Jobs.
In his current Monday Note,?Jean-Louis Gass?e called the ridicule Apple has suffered these last two weeks largely self-inflicted. Apple usually under promises and over delivers, but according to Gass?e Forstall did just the opposite:
"[Forstall's] demo?was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers? but not a word from the stage about the app's limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking, running, and ultimately lapping the frontrunner, Google Maps. Instead, we're told that Apple's Maps may be ?'the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.'"
Forstall did something similar last year when he unveiled Siri -- Apple's voice-activated personal assistant. Although it was labeled "beta" -- computer jargon for "work in progress" -- in Forstall's demo the application seemed not only to understand every question he put to it, but to have snappy answer. It has not worked so well in the wild, at least not for me.
"Siri has been an embarrassment for Apple," writes Business Insider's Jay Yarow in a piece entitled The Apple Maps Disaster Is Really Bad News For Apple's 'CEO-In-Waiting'. "This is his second consecutive high-profile screw up with iOS software."
Forstall came to Apple from NeXT and first rose to power on the strength of OS X Leopard, a project he managed. But it was by creating the original iPhone operating system -- since renamed iOS -- that he achieved his current status. As the manager of the platform that generates more than half of Apple's revenue, Forstall has amassed enormous clout within the company -- and more than his share of enemies.
"If there's a knock on Forstall," wrote Adam Lashinsky in Inside Apple, "it's that he wears his ambition in plainer view than the typical Apple executive. He blatantly accumulated influence in recent years, including, it is whispered, when Jobs was on medical leave."
According to an unflattering profile in?Bloomberg Businessweek?last year,?Forstall has such a fraught relationship with other?members of the executive team -- including Jony Ive and Bob Mansfield -- that they avoid meetings with him unless Tim Cook is present. The piece goes on to say:
"Some former associates of Forstall, none of whom would comment on the record for fear of alienating Apple, say he routinely takes credit for collaborative successes [and] deflects blame for mistakes."
That's one way to manage a team. In fact, it was often said that it was Steve Jobs' way. But it may not be Tim Cook's.
The Westport Plaza Farmers Market offers locally-grown produce in Midtown. Yesterday, the city council got a briefing on ways it could ramp up urban agriculture; for instance, helping to fund small businesses that could ensure corner grocery stores provide fresh local produce.
Urban agriculture is not just tomato plants in the back yard anymore.?It became a major grassroots movement in the last 15 years and cities need to plan for it just like they plan for streets or buildings, a new report concludes.
The report presented Thursday at the city council business session left council members pledging to do more to help plan and establish city farming and food distribution efforts.
For instance, they said, a fund for small businesses could lend money for corner stores, where many farmers could sell fresh food in neighborhoods where grocery stores are as scant as water in the desert.
The report provides an overview of urban agriculture and food service resources and practices in the United States and parts of Canada. The main goal was to provide ideas and resources that encourage and support urban agriculture in Kansas City, St. Louis and Columbia.
But it also created a searchable public website that shows nationwide efforts, documents, websites and resources related to the matter ? a kind of list of best urban farm practices.
The University Extension Service website collects best practices for urban agriculture.
Mary K. Hendrickson, an associate professor at the University of Missouri Extension, told council members that the web site might be the most important report result.
As urban agriculture has grown so have complexities associated with it, such as? allocating land, capital, water and coordinated efforts among complex city codes and zoning.
Most urban farms are less than one acre but farms up to 100 acres are possible that could gross more than $50,000 an acre and be important economic development tools, the report states.
It notes that a two-acre plot of organic soil in Kansas City, Kan., grosses over $100,000 in sales for the non-profit Cultivate Kansas City, a group involved in one of the proposals to buy Westport High School and Middle School.
A development group said this summer they want to turn the high school into a new pilot private school and that Cultivate Kansas City would use part of the middle school site for training in urban agriculture, a community greenhouse, gardens and orchards.
In August, Katherine Kelly, the cultivate group?s executive director, said it is ?expanding like crazy? and needs an educational space and community interaction site in the city.
On Thursday, Hendrickson told city council members that such expansions are happening nationwide and cities, universities and others must coordinate and plan for them.
Councilman Scott Wagner noted that on a visit to Austin, Tex., he found they had a food policy board for such planning and that some health insurance providers gave prescriptions for fresh fruit and vegetables.
He said the city council is studying allocating land for urban farms and also for institutional buying of food from them.
Councilman Scott Taylor suggested that the $1.5 million fund for small businesses could be used for the corner stores or possibly other urban farm needs.
Councilman John Sharp spoke of a more basic problem in times of hot weather and high water bills.
?One of he issues to deal with is being able to access water in an affordable manner,? he said.
As Owen Good often reminds us, not every Gaming App of the Day is a good one. For every Bad Piggies, The Room or Bar Story 2 there are a dozen NFL Pro 2013s, and he seems to wind up playing them all.
Oftentimes we'll play gaming apps for our daily spotlight based on our own personal preferences. We'll see something that catches our eyes (like fishhooks) and we'll dive right in. Sometimes, however, we are assigned them, as I kind of did with Owen this week. I mean, he's our sports guy! It's a sports game!
I'm so sorry, Owen.
If it helps, there are at least three picks on this week's list that are spectacular! The Room is one of the best puzzle adventure games I've played in forever, Bad Piggies has those pigs in it, and Kirk's pick has anime people mixing drinks in a bar!
That's what you should do. Go to a bar. Bring your iPhone.
If you have a suggestion for an app for the iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows Phone 7 that you'd like to see highlighted, let us know.
Sometimes A Game About Opening Boxes Is More Fun Than A Game About Shooting, Driving or Jumping
There is a box, and you must open it. The iPad game The Room is as simple as that and is more fun than Christmas morning. More ?
Lucky Battle is a Massively Multiplayer Online Fighting Game, Only Without the Fighting
True to its name, no fighting skill is required to rise through the ranks of Nine Waves' colorful anime fighter Lucky Battle - blind chance, diligent weapon upgrading and a bit of backstabbing are the keys to success here. More ?
Is Bad Piggies The New Angry Birds? Watch Closely.
Pigs might fly in the new game from the creators of Angry Birds. But only if you build them a helicopter, a plane or whatever you call a crate that's tied to a balloon and propelled by a house fan. More ?
A Sexy, Soapy iPhone Game That Also Teaches You To Make Drinks
Bartenders get all the good stories. People often go to bars simply to talk-we need a drink sometimes, to get away from it all, and we hope to find a bartender who will listen long enough to let us get it off our chest. More ?
Like the Saints' Bounty System, NFL Pro 2013 is Also a Pay-for-Performance Scandal
Unfortunately, this is not one of those App of the Day writeups where the selection is meritorious and the title is an honor. I'm here to dispense consumer advice about NFL Pro 2013, which provides a lot of enticement given the fact it's free and it has NFL licensing. My advice is to walk around NFL Pro 2013 like it was a swamp. More ?
The security of internet sites is definitely an ongoing struggle for numerous web site entrepreneurs specially when there are lots of unsafe viruses around using the web. Making certain the safety of your respective internet site seriously isn?t a simple endeavor these days in addition to a number of websites proprietor are likely to neglect this certain challenge. Any site is usually impacted by these risks instead of just the e-commerce sites focused. Even though your web site is not going to execute any transaction based mostly pursuits, it might nevertheless be in peril. Any web-site that could be by going online tends to be hacked and that?s why internet site protection is one area that every one internet site entrepreneurs ought to concentrate to. There are methods to take care of the best safety for your personal web-site and among the list of firstly simple steps is always to select the accurate password. A well-chosen password will probably be capable to deliver you by having a perfect websites safety. Make sure you also know as you must improve your password as a way to continue to keep all by yourself guarded on the longer operate.
The password for your entry to your internet site need to be transformed following a sure length of time. Utilizing the exact same password for the prolonged timeframe will direct to the majority of safety pitfalls. Your password could be risk-free now but it really may well not be harmless any longer right after a single yr. Together with the solutions boosting at this type of a quick tempo, hackers are crafting a lot more superior strategies to penetrate your safety. While using the utilization of software programs, they could bypass your safety effortlessly. So, it?s going to be effective should you can transform your password the moment in every single handful of months.
In the event you operate an organization, you have to also modification your password if you fireplace somebody who has the usage of your web site. You hardly ever understand what an indignant or displeased men and women will probably do simply because they won?t have a very obvious head. With a purpose to request some type of revenge, they may log in and delete all of your things. They could even provide facts for your opponents for all you are aware of. So, any time you dismiss somebody that has that form of obtain, you should improve your password straight away in order to avoid a specific thing lousy from taking place.
A different technique for sustaining an excellent protection stage in your web-site is to always preserve your password various or separated. You will have a variety of accounts and when you utilize the exact same password for all of all those accounts, you may be placing oneself in the great deal of hazard. The moment a hacker has the capacity to split into a person account, they are going to be capable to enter into your entire other accounts in addition. The thing is the risk? In an effort to eliminate and reduce this hazard, it?s possible to use various password for ones accounts so it will not be really easy for that hacker to hack into your accounts.
To get a summary, altering your password consistently is probably the easiest techniques to manage the safety of one?s internet site. Additionally, it is important to strive to place not less than ten figures that include quantities and alphabets. If relevant, it is easy to even include in symbols. At any time you make this happen the right way, you certainly will possess a first-rate possibility of stopping any stability breach on your own site.
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You're really starting to run out of reasons to not use Google's two-step authentication. An update today to the Google Authenticator application adds the ability to turn on two-step authentication without having to scan a QR code or re-enter your password on the device. Quickier, easier, and more important than ever, folks.
If you've yet to turn on two-step authentication, you need to do so today. (And you'll also want this app.)
Flashback to when I was in grade two. I was urging my mom to let me take piano lessons. My mom said ?no? because first, the fees were expensive, and second, she thinks that such activities would only interfere with my academic studies. I really wished she had enrolled me for music lessons though. I really wanted to learn to play the piano, the guitar, or the violin when I was young and I only had two simple reasons why?
First, I love music and I wanted to learn how to make music by myself. For a kid, learning how to play musical instruments could give a certain sense of achievement. It can also boost our confidence, knowing that such is a unique skill that only the persistent can develop.
The second reason was that I knew that being talented at making music can help me gain more friends in school. Kids who are good at playing musical instruments are more likely to become popular too, right? They can join bands and perform during special school events ? and in the process develop excellent social skills.
I know my reasons before were a bit petty ? but if you think thoroughly about whether you should let a kid learn to play a musical instrument or not, you will see that the benefits very much outweigh any risks.
Aside from my petty reasons above, I think we should let our kids learn how to play the piano or the violin because it would teach them discipline, acquired through the need to regularly practice and concentrate at playing. They would also develop patience and persistence, life lessons which are very valuable.
Learning how to play musical instruments can also be a source of fun ? and a form of stress reliever and self-expression. It can also reduce stage fright, promote team work, and as noted in some studies, it can enhance memory, and improve math, reading, and comprehension skills.
With all these probable benefits at hand, parents should even encourage their kids to explore the world of music. So the next time, your kid requests for piano lessons, why not go all the way and get him/her a beginner?s sheet music online at greatscores.com? If such programs are not available in school, you can even download ?how-to? programs and videos online.
P.S. I learned how to play the guitar ? a bit ? when I was in college and I hope my kids would learn better, and at a younger age.
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Bitdefender has released its 2013 generation of products, Antivirus Plus, Internet Security and Total Security, announcing all-round improvements, as well as new features. Photo: Bitdefender Corp.
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bitdefender for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
As one of the editors at TheBlogIsMine, I spend much time during the day in the Internet. Even people, who don?t work at the computer, spend countless hours online each day whether it?s social media, photo sharing, Skype, catching up on the latest news or reading interesting blogs such as TheBlogIsMine.
As technology continues to expand, the number of ways that our computers can be harmed increase dramatically each year. However, ordinary users, to my mind, don?t need to worry about various e-threats such as computer viruses, spyware, malware, scams and?phishing attacks.
However, there is Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013, the #1 antivirus software with ?Editor?s Choice? awards from CNET and PC Mag magazines, offers award-winning protection against all kinds of viruses, spyware, trojans and identity theft without slowing down your computer. What makes it so special?
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 is the latest addition to the developer?s collection, and it has been built to keep up with the recently created or improved threats that wander on the internet. The program is a powerful, accurate and highly configurable antivirus tool that delivers everything you need to keep your PC malware-free.
The core antivirus engine is constantly scanning all your internet, email and instant messaging traffic, for instance, detecting and blocking known threats before they?re able to install.
Two additional proactive technologies are used to uncover brand new threats, while keeping false alarms to a minimum. And the results are so good that independent testing labs AV-Comparatives awarded the program their highest Advanced+ rating in the January-September 2012 Retrospective/Proactive test.
The installation process of Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 is rather simple and painless. It doesn?t cause any headache because there is nothing to configure during the installation process. Simply click on the Install button to get the Bitdefender installer running. You don?t even need to choose custom installation as the standard one will do all for you.
Moreover, for Antivirus Plus 2013 version, BitDefender takes privacy and security to new levels. BitDefender Antivirus Plus 2013 debuts with ?several new features, among them:
BitDefender Safepay: A secure standalone Web browser that automatically opens when you visit banking and shopping sites. The browser is run in what is commonly called a sandbox mode, a separate virtual environment on your PC. Since the browser is isolated, it prevents many types of attacks that malware uses to capture your sensitive activity, such as keystroke logging, phishing, and network spoofing.
USB Immunizer: Scans and cleans any malware found on USB drives and other removable media, from CDs to remote network drives. It?s designed to protect you from threats like the Flame virus, and should help keep you from accidentally carrying malware and infecting PCs when you connect your USB drive or other removable media.
Device Anti-Theft: Included only in the BitDefender Total Security 2013, this tool will allow you to remotely lock, wipe, and locate your laptop?similar to those ?find my phone? apps you may have used on your smartphone or tablet.
BitDefender Autopilot: Hate the disruptive pop-ups that traditionally come with the antivirus software territory? You?ll be able to enjoy your browsing without interruption with this feature. It runs in the background, pop-up-free.
Social Network Protection: Facebook and Twitter have become an integral part of our lives, and with them, so too has come the fear of falling victim to scams, hackings, and other privacy violations. With Social Network Protection feature, all of the links you receive from friends across various social media sites will be filtered, and your privacy settings will be monitored.
Parental Control Options:?This feature allows parents to block inappropriate content, restrict Web access between certain hours, and it helps them remotely monitor their children?s online activity ? even on Facebook!
Staying protected online is very important to us here, at TheBlogIsMine, as we don?t want that our credit card information or other important data will be stolen. We also don?t want to experience a virus that could harm the files on our PCs because there are a lot of important files saved on our computers.
So, put it all together and there?s a lot of power here for your money: if you need the #1 antivirus software with top-notch protection against both online and offline threats then Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2013 will be an excellent choice for you.
Need even more security?! No problem! Bitdefender Total Security 2013 is right for, however, with a slightly higher price tag than ?Antivirus Plus 2013. For more information, you can visit the official page of Bitdefender Total Security 2013. For trial purpose, you can put Total Security 2013 a test drive for 30 days.
The last but not the least: BitDefender is giving away a Dell Inspiron laptop pre-loaded with its Total Security 2013 software. Find out how to enter the giveaway contest here.
Over time I?ve learned to confront the infamous ?red flags? when it comes to the dating world.
There may have been a tiny voice inside my head that said ?this doesn?t seem right,? but because I didn?t truly want to believe that was the case, I?d push it aside and move on. Well, one of the more pet-peevish warning signs that always left me clueless was when the other person (in my situations it was a guy, but I don?t want to target the whole male species here) could not express how he felt.
It?s also unfortunate when the silence goes beyond just articulating feelings, and he simply can?t communicate? at all. Your messages and texts go ignored, and you?re left wondering how you didn?t foresee this issue to begin with.
We all know communication in relationships is important, but in the early stages, is a tight-lipped manner a red flag signaling you to run the other way?
I?d say yes, considering a block in communication is fatal in serious, long-term relationships. ?The degree of block can vary with the severity or repeating of the communication stop,? Daniel Evans writes in his article, ?The Importance of Communication in Relationships.? ?A block in the relationship exists or will grow when communication is just flat out avoided.?
Evans grew up with the notion of not wanting to upset others; however, that only propelled him to avoid communicating on touchy topics altogether. ?In adult relationships, this behavior only avoided the hard issues that people have to work through for the relationship to be healthy and grow.?
Along with avoidance, diversion is another troublesome communication tactic. If the other person?s questions and curiosities are not addressed, the relationship will no longer be able to move forward.
Anna Solo, a freelance photojournalist, asserts that a lack of communication in any stage of a relationship should be constituted as a red flag. ?People often wait to expose their flaws until after they?ve gotten comfortable with someone, so if that quality pops up right at the start, I feel like it can only go downhill from there,? she says. ?There?s a difference between being shy and being a bad communicator, and if someone can?t communicate well or can?t push themselves to from the beginning, what other foundation can there be for a good relationship? There?s no way to cultivate a healthy relationship if you can?t discuss things.?
Ashley Knox, who has a master?s degree in social work, wasn?t as quick to throw in the towel. She believes that communicating effectively may take time. ?You have to learn about the other person?s communication style and how it works with your own or how it conflicts with your own,? she notes. ?As a couple, all of that needs to be discussed. If communication cannot be improved, then there is no relationship to begin with. Being a couple means being a team and working on things together and growing together. Not every couple that gets together is going to have the same communication pattern. Everyone is raised differently and deals with problems differently.?
Freelance writer Shaheen Darr previously wrote about red flags in relationships. Darr believes that a lack of communication definitely needs to be taken care of before moving on. ?A partner who is withdrawn and not willing to show any love, either through communication or in a physical sense, will leave the other partner feeling unfulfilled and insecure.? Insecurity in itself definitely is not beneficial to relationships either.
Whatever the circumstances causing insufficient communication, when you start to feel that uncomfortable inkling that the dynamic is off, it probably doesn?t hurt to follow your intuition.
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????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 26 Sep 2012 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference Suval, L. (2012). Is Lack of Communication a Red Flag?. Psych Central. Retrieved on September 27, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/09/26/is-lack-of-communication-a-red-flag/
After months of speculation about who would step in to save the scandal-riddenOlympus' rocky fortunes, Sony has finally opened up its checkbook. The two companies are entering into a "business and capital alliance," with Sony pumping in $650 million to its former rival. In exchange, it's gaining a seat on the company's board and a 51 percent stake in a new joint venture based on Olympus's coveted medical imaging tech -- something Kaz Hirai outlined in his "One Sony" strategy. The deal also includes a component-sharing agreement in the photography space, with Olympus mirror cells and camera lenses being given to Sony, while image sensors (where Sony is verystrong) will go the other way.
Self Defense - The Four Most Dangerous Places For Assaults
By Anonymous on Sep 25, 2012 12:21 pm
For women the best places to use products for female self-defense to help improve their personal safety and personal security are the home, workplace, college campuses and parking lots. Read on to learn much more. Read in browser ?
Self-Defense: Ways to Measure Effectiveness Of Pepper Sprays - Are You Confused Yet?
By Anonymous on Sep 20, 2012 02:02 pm
The reason these are more important is because they determine the ouch factor-how much pain is inflicted. That is a key reason people but defensive sprays for personal safety and personal self-defense. Read on to learn more. Read in browser ?
Self-Defense - What Are The Most Effective Personal Defense Products?
By Anonymous on Sep 19, 2012 03:33 pm
We will limit our discussion to pepper sprays and stun devices to include tasers. These are by far the most popular personal defense items. Let's look at their effectiveness a little bit differently. How popular are they? How cost effective are they? And what are their results? Read on to learn more. Read in browser ?
Self-Defense: Cheap Stun Devices - Three Under Twenty Dollars
By Anonymous on Sep 19, 2012 10:08 am
Most stun guns now are rechargeable and require no batteries. Here are three cheap stun devices that are all under $20 each. They are a good example of what we've been talking about. Read on to learn more. Read in browser ?
CivicNet may boost property values and redevelopment projects?
by Tom LaPorte | June 17, 2002 i-Street Magazine
Even though the city is still months away from awarding the CivicNet contracts, some leaders of the effort are already looking around the next curve on the information superhighway. CivicNet may change more than the speed of neighborhood data connections. It may have an impact on everything from property values to the alignment of suburbs.
CivicNet, of course, is the City of Chicago's strategy for bringing high-speed Internet connections to all the city's neighborhoods. By "bundling" demand across all government agencies, a single provider gets a big contract for voice and data services. Fast connections are installed in schools, libraries and other government buildings. The result is a wired city.
Scott Goldstein, [vice president for policy and planning for the Metropolitan Planning Council]...also suggested that CivicNet in the city's neighborhoods could hold a key to redevelopment of business districts. Many neighborhoods lost retail trade to regional shopping malls and Walmart-type discount stores. But if a CivicNet strategy results in high-speed connectivity in an older business district, there could be a return migration by businesses needing or wanting high-speed access. In the same way that businesses locate near concrete highways and sources of water, they now will have to consider proximity to a network hub as a factor in their choice of locations. ...
Oh boy! I like money!
It then limped along for a little while (from March, 2004, with emphasis added):
Portions of the network could be built with local government fiber already deployed along roads and Chicago Transit Authority lines. Unfortunately, to the frustration of local business and civic leaders, the city has done very little with the project since its' conception in the late 1990s.
and eventually vanished
Kinks in plan to wire city for speed; Economy, timing strand CivicNet.(News)
Byline: JULIE JOHNSSON
A city-sponsored proposal to lace Chicago with fiber optic lines from 138th to Howard streets is stalled and appears unlikely to be revived.
The telecommunications crash, politics and a city budget crunch have combined to mothball CivicNet, a project that was supposed to put broadband within reach of every business and home in Chicago. ...
without a trace.
There were no survivors, and no one was ever rude enough to mention above a whisper that Da Mare's Big Internet Plan had turned out to be mostly boondoggle, double-talk, and political moonshine.
Then, a few years later...
March, 2006. (emphasis added) ??[Ed Note: The "Midwest Business" publication from which this quote was taken in 2009 has ceased to exist]
"After serving the post of Chicago CIO for six years, Chris O?Brien felt it was his time to move on. Hardik Bhatt, who officially succeeded O?Brien on March 13, said in an interview with ePrairie that he sees a fully Wi-Fied Windy City in 2007.
?We don?t have to be the first city,? Bhatt said about the vision of Chicagoans being able to walk a laptop from Starbucks to their laundromat and to their home without disconnecting from the high-speed Web. ?We just have to get there. I see the city being fully interconnected sometime next year.?
Yay! I still like money!
June, 2006
Chicago Takes Bids for Citywide Wi-Fi Service
In an effort to bridge the ?digital divide,? the City of Chicago is moving forward with plans to offer Internet access to all residents. On May 30, Mayor Richard Daley announced a request for proposals from vendors competing for a 10-year contract to provide wireless Internet access throughout the city.
Wi-Fi - short for Wireless Fidelity - enables mobile communications devices, like laptops and personal digital assistants (PDAs), to connect to the Internet without the use of any wires or cables. A citywide wi-fi system would allow residents to have online access from virtually anywhere in the city.
June, 2007 (Video from the "City That NetWorks" summit, at which the Dukes and Duchesses of the Great City wished real hard and clapped reeeeeal loud, so that Broadband Tinklerbell would live again! I do believe in fairies!! I do! I do!)
However, Eight Weeks Later...
Chicago scraps plans for citywide Wi-Fi Officials say it's too costly and too few residents would use it
CHICAGO - An ambitious plan to blanket the city with wireless broadband Internet will be shelved because it is too costly and too few residents would use it, Chicago officials said Tuesday.
"We realized ? after much consideration ? that we needed to reevaluate our approach to provide universal and affordable access to high speed Internet as part of the city's broader digital inclusion efforts," Chicago's chief information officer, Hardik Bhatt, said in a statement. ...
So how could someone go from promising the world to delivering nothing and still keep their job?
One might speculate that very, very lavish flattery might have helped: ?[Ed Note: The "Midwest Business" publication from which this quote was taken in 2009 has ceased to exist]
... In working with Daley, Bhatt asserts that the mayor bleeds technology. He added: 'In a 15-minute meeting, he always gives me five or 10 points I didn't even think about. He understands very quickly and gives me a good direction. He's on top of a list of all the visionaries I've worked with at Oracle and anywhere.'
Then, a few years later...
July, 2009
Mayor Richard M. Daley today announced new initiatives to help close the ?digital divide? in Chicago neighborhoods, guided by a city-commissioned study that says that 25 per cent of Chicagoans are completely offline and that another 15 percent have limited internet access.
?The study tells us that the magnitude of the digital divide separating low-income Chicago neighborhoods is comparable to the rural-urban divide in broadband use,? Daley said in a news conference held at The Resurrection Project, 1814 S. Paulina St.
?If we want to improve the quality of life for everyone, we must work to make sure that every resident and business has access to 21st century technology in their own neighborhoods and homes,? the Mayor said. ...
Yay! Money! And so forth!
Which brings us pretty much up-to-date, except for one little-known fact: that Da Mare's people had a virtually identical proposal for a small, well-reasoned pilot program in their hands five years ago (Full disclosure; I am acquainted with some of the people who contributed to the proposal. They are, to put it mildly, a trifle cranky.) It was designed to do almost exactly what this latest plan is supposed to do: technologically uplift a specific, geographic region, then carefully test and measure the efficacy of providing near-universal high-speed internet access to that area.
It was summarily rejected not because of the price tag, but because it wasn't splashy and spectacular enough. Because it was wouldn't guarantee complete, wall-to-wall coverage of the entire city in one year and at virtually no cost.
In other words, because it didn't promise a big, steaming heap of technological magic and economic voodoo with political miracles sprinkled on top.
And because, as is all too often the case, Da Mare's people were far more interested in headline-generating gimmicks than in real solutions, in the end they went with the nice man who promised them they could have the city "fully interconnected sometime next year?, while the other other plan was sent off to rot on some forgotten library shelf.
Another of the great mysteries about this strange tale is the behavior of Da Mare's people at this critical juncture: that rather than being righteously indignant at being led down the primrose path by someone whose resume would indicate that they damn well should have known better, they instead very generously decided to let that nice man keep his new job and politely ignore the fact that the very lavish promise he made in order to secure that job was yet another cocktail of boondoggle, double-talk, and political moonshine.
Weird, isn't it?
Of course, all Chicagoans of good will should wish City Hall godspeed and good luck with this latest iteration of the Neverending Project, because:
This is simply too important to fuck up again, and
They are the only game in town.
However if past performance is any indicator of future outcomes, anyone who has watched the last 10 years of promises, excuses, failure, rinse and repeat should now be permanently locked into "Trust, But Verify" mode.
Because the one, clear lesson lesson which can be drawn from the last 10 years is, sadly, pretty simple: If you want to get ahead in City Gummint, when Hizzoner has one of his Special Mayor Moments and suddenly announces that the City's grave financial and structural problems can be fixed by, say, selling all of its parking meters to corporate grifters...
...or blowing hundreds of millions of dollars to sponsor a three-week sports extravaganza seven years from now...
...or, WTF, maybe inducing city pigeons into pooping out 100,000 tiny ingots of gold...
...rather than being one of those annoying, dour, ?reality based? buzz-killers and pointing out that his visionary pigeon plan might not be 100% biologically viable, instead reach deeeep into the biggest sack of horseshit you can find and say, with absolute sincerity;
?You know, Mr. Mayor, I sincerely believe wit all my heart dat doze pigeons could shit 200,000 ingots of gold ? and piss liquid platinum ? if only da right person were to be, y'know, put in charge of managing your brilliant vision.
"On behalf of all da poor children.
"An' hardworkin' mudders.
"An' old people.
"Of da Great City of Chicago.
"Dat we all love so much."
Or, as Evilene eloquently explained 30 years ago in ?The Wiz?, if you want to succeed in the viper pit of City Hall office politics, the one thing you never, ever want to do is bring Hizzoner no bad news:
?Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News?
When I wake up in the afternoon Which it pleases me to do Don't nobody bring me no bad news 'Cause I wake up already negative And I've wired up my fuse So don't nobody bring me no bad news
If we're going to be buddies Better bone up on the rules 'Cause don't nobody bring me no bad news You can be my best of friends As opposed to payin' dues But don't nobody bring me no bad news
No bad news No bad news Don't you ever bring me no bad news 'Cause I'll make you an offer, child That you cannot refuse So don't nobody bring me no bad news
When you're talking to me Don't be cryin' the blues 'Cause don't nobody bring me no bad news You can verbalize and vocalize But just bring me the clues But don't nobody bring me no bad news
Bring some message in your head Or in something you can't lose But don't you ever bring me no bad news If you're gonna bring me something Bring me, something I can use But don't you bring me no bad news
* (Title respectfully pilfered from this early play by David Mamet, and subsequently abused by me)
Every week on the Good Food Blog we celebrate?Meatless Monday?by sharing a vegetarian recipe from our archives.
Lompoc farmer Mario Trevino?grows tomatillos (small citrusy tomato-like fruits with a hard protective husk)?and talks about the medicinal properties of the husk (he makes a medicinal tea out of the tomatillo husk to lower his blood sugar). It tastes awful, but Mario says it?s brought his blood sugar down significantly.? He first shared this recipe for?Tomatillo Husk Tea?on September 29, 2007.
Press release: Legal victories for two Southern 32 members in Immigration Court
Posted
by Charles Maldonado on
Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 8:08 PM
The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) highlighted two recent court wins for local day laborers and members of the Southern 32 in a press release today. One of them, Joaquin Navarro Hernandez, was profiled in a recent Gambit cover story.
Last month, New Orleans Immigration Court Judge W. Wayne Stogner said that the government's case against Navarro Hernandez was based on unreliable evidence, namely a U.S. Border Patrol arrest report that was demonstrated to be inaccurate. Stogner gave lawyers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement one month to produce more evidence.
Last week, Navarro Hernandez's case was dismissed.
(Read NOWCRJ's full press release after the jump)
Victories for the Southern 32
New Court Rulings Reveal Troubling Pattern of Abuse by Federal Immigration Authorities
New Orleans, LA ? Late last week, the New Orleans immigration court ruled in favor of yet two more members of the Southern 32 ? a group of immigrants put into deportation proceedings for standing up against civil rights violations and abusive labor conditions.
The decisions add to the mounting evidence that immigration authorities in the South are acting outside of the law and flagrantly violating civil rights while Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials in Washington are defending the perpetrators.
Jennifer Rosenbaum, legal director of the New Orleans Worker Center for Racial Justice said, ?The Obama Administration made a commitment to exercise discretion in favor of individuals who bring legitimate claims of labor and civil rights violations. Instead, immigration agents in the South appear to be using their ?discretion? to target these individuals for abuse and deportation.?
In Gerson Diaz?s case, a federal judge issued an opinion finding an initial showing of egregious fourth amendment rights violations by the Southern Regional Office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Now, ICE will be forced to defend the arrests made by their agents with direct testimony and evidence from the agents themselves. The opinion states:
"From this record, it appears that the ICE agents not only unlawfully entered the house before business hours, but also failed to provide any type of announcement before suddenly entering respondent's house or room. Moreover, two of the ICE agents entered the bedroom with their guns drawn and aimed at respondent. These claims raise the question of whether the agents intentionally or deliberately violated respondent's fourth amendment rights. The Court is greatly troubled by Respondent's claims. Based on the circumstances presented, the Court finds that respondent has made a prima facie showing that the ICE agents' actions may constitute an egregious violation of his Fourth Amendment Rights."
And in the case of Joachin Navarro Hernandez, the New Orleans immigration court dismissed the immigration case against him, following a previous hearing where the court found that the arrest record provided by DHS wasn?t credible because it was inaccurate and omitted important details. This followed a finding by the federal court in separate litigation related to the border patrol raid that Mr. Navarro Hernandez had benefited the public by "facilitat[ing] public oversight of CBP's (Customs and Border patrol) enforcement of federal immigration law in the New Orleans area, both as it relates to his own case and in general."
Joaquin Navarro Hernandez, whose case was vindicated by the court said, ?The Southern 32 continue to demand that DHS officials in Washington use their prosecutorial discretion to protect the Southern 32 from deportation and grant us work permits so that we can provide for our families and contribute to this country. We stood up for ourselves and our fellow workers and immigration agents are trying to deport us and lying to cover up their abuse ? it isn?t right and we stand united and determined to expose the truth.?
Jennifer Rosenbaum added, ?DHS officials in the Southern Regional Office originally told us that the members of the Southern 32 didn?t have evidence of their civil rights complaints and couldn?t effectively fight their own deportations. Now, the courts are telling us that it is DHS whose claims are ?not credible? or whose ?egregious violation? of rights are leading to the closure of deportation proceedings for more and more members of the Southern 32. At some point we need to ask, who is really more credible??
NEW YORK (AP) ? Apple's stock reached $700 for the first time on Tuesday, the day after it announced that orders for its iPhone 5 topped 2 million in the first 24 hours.
The stock traded as high as $701.44 in the morning, up a quarter of a percent from Monday's close. It later fell slightly. It had come within 20 cents of $700 on Monday.
The rally in Apple's stock price puts the company's market value at $656 billion.
The $700 mark is somewhat of an arbitrary milestone for Apple's stock, representing little more than a nice round number and a record high trading level.
The company, after all, already enjoys the distinction as the world's most valuable public company ever, at least if one ignores inflation. Google Inc., its Silicon Valley neighbor, saw its stock price surpass $700 in 2007. On Tuesday, Google's stock was trading at $715.24. But the online search leader's market capitalization is well below Apple's at $234.1 billion.
Apple started taking orders for the iPhone 5 at 3 a.m. EDT Friday. Orders during the first 24 hours more than doubled what Apple had for its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, over the same period last October.
"This was despite somewhat lukewarm reviews and some claiming it had 'lack of a wow factor,' Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a note to investors. "We continue to believe many underestimate iPhone 5 in that it is a significant update and will drive a powerful product cycle."
Wu estimates that Apple will likely ship 27 million iPhones in the current quarter. That's up from his earlier estimate of 26 million.
Apple said on Monday that while most orders will be delivered this Friday, when the phone goes on sale in stores in the U.S. and eight other countries, demand for the iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply. That means some of the devices will be delivered in October.
Buyers who have a two-year service agreement with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless are able to order the phone for $199 (16 gigabyte model), $299 (32 GB) or $399 (64 GB).
The iPhone 5 represents the first major revision of the iPhone's screen size since the first model was introduced in 2007. The new iPhone has an elongated screen, at 4 inches measured diagonally. That allows room for another row of icons and lets widescreen movies fit better. Earlier models had 3.5-inch screens. The new phone is also thinner and weighs less than previous versions. It can operate on LTE cellular networks and sports a new processor and updated software.
Apple share have risen 87 percent since Oct. 5, when CEO Steve Jobs died. The stock was up 15 cents at $699.93 in Tuesday morning trading after briefly surpassing $700.
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - World no.2 fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz on Monday posted an unexpected drop in like-for-like sales in August, blaming a heatwave in key European markets for keeping customers away from stores.
The Swedish budget apparel firm, which trails Zara owner Inditex by value and turnover, as well as by the number of markets and stores, said sales at stores open a year or more shrank 4 percent in local currencies in August, well below a Reuters poll forecast for 1 percent growth.
"It was primarily the extreme heat wave in a number of European markets in August that affected sales negatively," H&M said in a statement.
DNB Markets analyst Haakon Aschehoug, who rates the stock a "hold", said the figures probably meant H&M, which has the bulk of business in Europe, lost market share in the month.
"We already know the (apparel sales) numbers from Sweden and Germany, and the U.S. retail sales. This represents, in our view, an underperformance on the key markets of about 4 percent."
H&M said its total sales in August, the last month of the fast-expanding firm's fiscal third quarter, were up 6 percent from a year earlier, lagging the mean forecast for an 11 percent increase.
H&M has more than 2,600 stores in 44 markets across Europe, Asia and North America. In Germany, H&M's biggest single market, apparel sales dropped 2 percent in August, according to industry data.
"The trend we've seen the past months has been H&M outperforming the market. That took a pause in August ... We will watch this closely going forward," Aschehoug said.
H&M said that, in its full third quarter, a strong appreciation of the Swedish crown, mainly against the euro, led to large negative currency translation effects.
Turnover in the June-August quarter grew 7 percent from a year earlier to 28.8 billion crowns ($4.4 billion), undershooting expectations for a 9 percent rise to 29.5 billion.
H&M's regular quarterly earnings report is scheduled for September 27.
So far this year, H&M and Inditex have proved more resilient than rivals to the eurozone crisis and challenging fashion retail markets.
In its second quarter, H&M grew profits more than expected helped by its low-price focus, easing input prices and a broadening geographic footprint.
($1 = 6.5419 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Stockholm Newsroom; Editing by Louise Heavens)
As Owen Good often reminds us, not every Gaming App of the Day is a good one. For every Bad Piggies, The Room or Bar Story 2 there are a dozen NFL Pro 2013s, and he seems to wind up playing them all.
Sometimes A Game About Opening Boxes Is More Fun Than A Game About Shooting, Driving or Jumping
Lucky Battle is a Massively Multiplayer Online Fighting Game, Only Without the Fighting
Is Bad Piggies The New Angry Birds? Watch Closely.
A Sexy, Soapy iPhone Game That Also Teaches You To Make Drinks
Like the Saints' Bounty System, NFL Pro 2013 is Also a Pay-for-Performance Scandal
Over time I?ve learned to confront the infamous ?red flags? when it comes to the dating world.
